[SunSentinel] Just one shot left for Heat

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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/basketball/heat/ sfl-heat03may03,0,4790208.story?coll=sfla-sports-heat Just one shot left for Heat By Ira Winderman Staff Writer Posted May 3 2004 NEW ORLEANS · The feel-good story didn't feel too good Sunday afternoon. Not after scoring 14 points in the first quarter, falling behind by 17 in the second and being victimized by an 18-3 Hornets surge in the third. Now it comes down to one game, one final home stand, to see if this Heat revival includes a second round of the NBA playoffs or the bitter aftertaste of a postseason opportunity gone sour. With its 89-83 loss at New Orleans Arena, the Heat set up a winner-take-all Game 7 on Tuesday night at AmericanAirlines Arena. "We'll play a great game, come out and win," guard Eddie Jones said. "That's what we're going to do. That's what we have to do. We have to go out and take care of home court." In the Heat's favor: It is 3-0 against the Hornets on its home court in this opening-round series, has won its past 15 home games and enters knowing 70 of the past 85 home teams have won Game 7s in the NBA playoffs. Tempering the optimism: The moment seems to be growing too big for Stan Van Gundy's team, its offense now a constant struggle, the physical play of the Hornets seemingly exacting an emotional toll on a group of kids who at one point held a 2-0 edge in the series. "The only positive for us is we didn't quit," Van Gundy said, with a too-little, too-late 19-5 rally bringing the Heat within 85-81 with 67 seconds to play. "We have been that way all year. We won't quit or go away." Struggling on the road Sunday as it has all year, even amid its climb from an 0-7 start to the season, the Heat essentially was lost from the start, missing 21 of its first 27 shots in a game in which it shot 38.7 percent from the field. "We've just got to come out better," Jones said of Tuesday's deciding game, with another 20,000 expected at AmericanAirlines Arena. "We've got to come out more aggressive, make better decisions." From Sunday's ragged start, it seemingly was all about setting up what comes next. The Hornets shoved; the Heat shoved back. But the Hornets kept pushing, yapping, seemingly trying to turn the Heat's mental state into the same state its outside shooting has been since Game 2. New Orleans was called for four technical fouls, compared to the Heat's lone technical on forward Lamar Odom. Along the way, Hornets forward Robert Traylor was ejected for a hard fourth-quarter takedown on Jones, and Hornets guard Baron Davis tried to shove his way into a Heat huddle. "It just left a nasty taste in your mouth. I don't know what they were trying to do," Heat forward Caron Butler said. "All we did was come to play basketball. Now we're ready to go back to Miami and redeem ourselves. And we look forward to the challenge." The officiating staff did its best to maintain order, but the closing stages were marked by a number of tussles, the task made all the more difficult for Sean Corbin and Blane Reichelt when lead referee Joe Crawford was forced out of the game with 1:45 to play in the first quarter with what turned out to be a torn plantar fascia in his right foot. "They're front-runners, trying to get into your head, trying to get you distracted with all that nonsense," Jones said of the Hornets' instigating and theatrics. "We don't back down -- we don't stop playing; we keep going at it. That's what we're all about. "We've just got to go home and do what we have to do, what we've been doing this whole series -- winning at home." To regroup, it will take more than adoring fans. Foremost, more will be needed from Odom, who shot 3 of 12. He closed with nine points, 11 rebounds and four assists, but he also had six turnovers and six fouls. "I'm disappointed in myself. I didn't play well," he said. "This game, with so much magnitude, I would have loved to have played well and really helped this team." Rookie guard Dwyane Wade led the Heat with 27 points, adding seven rebounds and six assists in playing all but one minute. Jones contributed 23 points, and Butler had 14. But the Heat did not have enough to offset the Hornets' balance. Instead of dominating, on the heels of his 33-point effort in Game 5, Davis delegated. He finished with 15 points, 12 assists and five rebounds. Hornets forwards P.J. Brown and George Lynch scored 16 points apiece. Center Jamaal Magloire added 14 and guard David Wesley 10. "The ante was definitely raised," said Brown, the former Heat power forward whose two foul shots with 50.9 seconds to play quelled the Heat's late charge. "There was a lot of trash talking going on. Chit-chat, I call it, playoff chit-chat. That's just part of it. It's nothing personal. It's just all business. "When I was with Miami, we had some spirited battled like that with the Knicks." This hardly is on the level of Heat-Knicks. That was true contempt. This merely is a pair of average teams trying to join genuine powers such as the Lakers, Spurs, Kings, Timberwolves, Pistons, Pacers and Nets in the second round, with the winner to be served up to Indiana starting Thursday. "It's going to be a war, just like every other game in this series. It might be a little more intense," Wade said of Tuesday's series finale. "It's a great series, two great teams going at it. That's what you watch the playoffs for, to see who's going to duke it out in Game 7." Ira Winderman can be reached at iwinderman@sun-sentinel.com. Copyright c 2004, South Florida Sun-Sentinel -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 218.166.82.12